[FishInTheWater]

> What a tricky problem to solve at scale because of the tragedy of the commons (As in; "I'm sure someone - not me - will be a sponsor for this project")

We have solutions for tragedies of the commons like this: Professional Associations, Unions, and Guilds.

They have the ability to raise funds through their membership fees, and can then spend that money on the common good. Membership can be 'encouraged' by requiring payment for commercial use if the company/it's employees aren't part of the association.

This solution is just not very popular, partly because of aversion to having to pay a % fee of your paycheque, partly because it's arguably "taking open source proprietary".

But if proper open-source is unsustainable, professional associations may yet be better than the alternatives of governments deciding which open source gets funding, or complete commercialisation of open source software.